This Application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 322,626 of Robert R. Reid et al for Workpiece Moistening Apparatus, filed concurrently herewith and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,970,536, for Postage Meter Machines, issued Feb. 7, 1961 to J. W. Bach and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, commercially available mailing machines of the type which include conventional means for feeding a moistenable workpiece, such as a strip of adhesive bearing material, in a predetermined path of travel through an imprinting station, cutting station and dispensing station, are generally provided with workpiece moistening means at the dispensing station for moistening the workpiece as it is dispensed. As disclosed in the aforesaid U.S. Patent it is known in the art to provide strip moistening structure, having a water tank, which is removably hingedly mounted on the machine for pivoting about a vertical axis so that it can be swung outwardly from the confines of the machine and removed for servicing and cleaning purposes. Although accessing the strip moistening structure for replenishing the water supply is a task that can be easily handled by customers, it has been found that customers rarely if ever clean and service the structure. And if the customers do so they experience difficulties in the course of disassembling, cleaning, adjusting and/or reassembling the structure. As a consequence, customers generally call in factory trained technical personnel for handling this task, with the result that the customers incur costs which could be avoided if the strip moistening structure were not only readily accessible but also readily dissassembled, cleaned, adjusted and reassembled without the use of tools. Accordingly:
an object of the invention is to provide an improved workpiece moistening system which can be easily serviced by customers without the use of tools;
another object is to provide improved strip moistening means for use in a mailing machine having means for feeding a moistenable strip of adhesive bearing material to a dispensing station at which the strip moistening means is located;
another object is to provide workpiece moistening means constructed and arranged for facilitating disassembly, cleaning, adjustment and reassembly without the use of tools;
another object is to provide improved workpiece moistening structure for a mailing machine, including means for carrying a moisture applicator such that the applicator is readily accessible for servicing; and
another object is to provide improved workpiece moistening apparatus for a mailing machine, including improved means for applying moisture to a workpiece.